Congenital myotonia (CM) is characterised by a delay in muscular relaxation after sudden contractions. In a recent outbreak of ovine CM affecting 1% of new-born lambs in a Spanish flock of Rasa Aragonesa sheep, a comparative pathology approach was taken: because a mutation in the muscle chloride channel gene (CLCN1) was identified as responsible for CM in goats, the same gene was sequenced in the affected lambs. A non-synonymous single nucleotide variation (SNV) in the second exon of CLCN1 was associated with this pathology. Rams carrying this SNV heterozygously were thereafter identified and replaced by wild-type homozygous young males. No additional CM cases were detected in subsequent lambing seasons.
Keywords: Muscle chloride channel gene; Ovine congenital myotonia; Single nucleotide variation.
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